King Charles I From 1625, Charles I was King of England, Scotland and Ireland. He reigned until 1649, when he was executed, for high treason, by beheading. He is best known for quarrelling with Parliament, provoking the English Civil Wars, and precipitating the abolishment of the monarchy. He also played a significant role in horological history, patronising the clockmakers Edward East and David Ramsay and, in 1631, chartering the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. The Clockmakers’ Company was one of the earliest horological guilds in the world and played a key role in the development of horology and scientific innovation. Born on 19 November 1600, Charles was the second son of King James VI and I of England, Scotland and Ireland, respectively. At the age of 12, Prince Charles became the heir to the throne after the premature death of his older brother, Prince Henry. A table clock, made by David Ramsay between 1610 and 1615 in the French style, is housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum (M.7-1931). It features an engraved depiction of the two young princes with their father, King James, on its square base. In it, the King and his two sons hold the Pope’s nose to a grindstone – a comical and obviously anti-Catholic scene. The Finches explain that the image probably dates to sometime between 1609 and 1612, between ‘the alliance between Spain and the Netherlands ... a blow to Papal power in Europe’ and the death of Prince Henry.[1] This also indicates that the clock was completed while Ramsay was in France, at least a year prior to his moving to London at the behest of King James. In 1613, James summoned Ramsay to London and appointed Ramsay as his Royal Clockmaker, Groom to the Privy Chamber, and Page to the Bedchamber – making the Scottish clockmaker part of his inner council. Ramsay occupied these roles at the seat of power throughout the rest of James’ reign. Charles’ Royal Clockmakers On 27 March 1625, King James died, and Charles, his oldest surviving son, became King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland. Upon Charles' accession, the former king's servants became redundant in principle. Predictably, the new king was eager to replace his father’s royal appointments with men of his own age, many of whom were in his entourage while he was prince. One of these was the clockmaker Thomas Caesar, whom Charles promptly appointed as his Royal Clockmaker. Nervous about their standing in the new Royal Household, Ramsay and other staff petitioned Charles about whether or not he intended to continue their employment.[2] It was decided that Ramsay would retaine his posts in the Privy Chamber and Bedchamber and as the King’s Royal Clockmaker, for the time being. Unusually, Ramsay and Caesar both occupied the Royal Clockmaker role until Caesar died in 1637. According to the Royal Collection Trust, Charles was known ‘to have kept two watches – one of gold and one of silver – beside his bed, which he wound each night before retiring’. Within a few years, Charles had staffed the Privy Chamber and Bedchamber with his own men and demoted Ramsay to the role of the King’s Agent.[3] Ramsay’s new duties included issuing royal patents, acting as a petitioner, and undertaking diplomatic missions as a Royal Emissary of the King.[4] By 1630, Ramsay was also handling the estates of royal wards, which included lunatics and minors whose inheritances were devolved to the Crown.[5] Charles also gradually transferred his horological patronage to the clockmaker Edward East.[6] There is a silver and blued-steel watch by East, dated 1630–1645, at the Royal Collection Trust (RCIN 63739) that is believed to have belonged to King Charles. The watch was presented to Queen Elizabeth II as a gift. Although Ramsay remained in royal employ throughout Charles’ reign, the clockmaker never managed to gain the King's confidence the way he had with Charles’ father, James. The variable quality of Ramsay's petitions (which undermined his reputation at court), and his failure to heed Charles’ wishes and accompany the King and his army to Edinburgh in 1638 (when the Scots were rioting at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh), contributed to Ramsay’s fall from grace with the King.[7] The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers Charles was known for his extravagance and had spent most of his reign quarrelling with Parliament, as he believed he should govern as he saw fit, with little or no oversight but ready access to cash. His treasurers were constantly under extreme pressure to finance the King’s whims.[8] What could be considered the ‘scam’ of founding London guilds, a lucrative business, was one way the Crown raised money. Prospective guilds essentially paid bribes to the Crown to secure charterships. They also reduced costs by taking on a member of the Royal Household as a Master. This was certainly the case for the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. In 1622, the London clockmakers first unsuccessfully petitioned Charles’ father, King James. In 1627, they tried their luck with the new king, submitting a second petition to Charles for the grant of a letters patent, which would allow them freedom to control their work throughout London. This petition also failed after the Blacksmiths’ Company lobbied against them. Learning from their previous experience, they managed to raise £61 to support the grant and submitted a third petition in 1629. Their timing was good. By 1629, Charles had dismissed Parliament and ushered in a series of highly unpopular taxation policies. By 1631, the King was so strapped for cash that he granted the London clockmakers’ petition. That same year, the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, one of the earliest clockmaking guilds in the world, was royally chartered. The charter for the new London guild created a corporate body for all the clockmakers in the City of London, as well as those within a radius of 10 miles around the city. Regulatory powers covered England and Wales. It also specified that the new fellowship should be governed by a Master, three Wardens, and ten or more Assistants who would form a court. Charles stipulated that the first Master would be his Royal Clockmaker, Ramsay. Notably, Ramsay was a Scot. Thus, by royal order the first Master of the Company was a foreigner. The Finches explain the ‘irony’ of the Company’s ‘embrace of Ramsay as its first Master, as Ramsay met precisely the description of the person that the Guild had been established to regulate, but in the Stuart court, circles were regularly squared when money and favour were involved’.[9] Ramsay had little interest in matters of the guild and rarely attended meetings. East was a founding member of the Company, and, in 1632, contrary to his wishes, became one of the original ten Assistants. Destitution, Disgrace and Regicide By the time the first English Civil War erupted in 1641, Charles was no longer paying his inner council, and he owed Ramsay some £2000 for unpaid wages and royal commissions. It was even further back in 1632 that Ramsay received his last payment from the King, for £219.[10] It is likely that the clockmaker had no other source of income beyond his royal duties. By 1641, Ramsay was financially destitute and in a debtors’ prison. In 1642, Charles and his army of Royalists (the Cavaliers) were fighting against the army of the Parliamentarian Army (the Roundheads). The King was defeated in 1645 after he surrendered to a Scottish force which then handed him over to the English Parliament. He refused to meet the demands of Parliament to convert his realms into a constitutional monarchy, because of his absolute belief in the divine right of kings. In November 1647, Charles managed to escape imprisonment but was captured and re-imprisoned on the Isle of Wight. While there, he tried to counter his defeat by forging a new alliance with the Scots. This alliance failed to materialise. During the winter of 1648–1649, while the King was awaiting trial for treason, his favourite clockmaker, Edward East, made an alarm watch which Charles had commissioned.[11] Although it was dispatched via the Earl of Pembroke on 17 January, it apparently went missing before it could be delivered. Charles was then moved to St James Palace (where he was confined). By the time of his trial before Parliament three days later, the watch could not be traced, and the King remarked Ah! Had he not told the officer it was for me, it would have probably been delivered: he well knew how short a time I would enjoy it. Charles was convicted of high treason. On 30 January 1649, his execution by public beheading took place. It was carried out on a scaffold in front of the Banqueting House at the Palace of Whitehall in London. Immense crowds gathered to witness the macabre event. His execution speech was heard only by those who were near the scaffold. In it, he spoke of his pursuit of liberty, all the while clinging to the belief of his divine right to rule: but I must tell you that their [that of the people] liberty and freedom consists of having government… it is not their having a share in the government; that is nothing appertaining unto them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things. Charles’ body was eventually conveyed to Windsor on 7 February 1649, and he was buried in private in the Henry VIII vault in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 9 February 1649. Immediately following the King’s execution, the monarchy was abolished, and the republic of the Commonwealth of England was established. Oliver Cromwell, a commander in the Parliamentarian Army, was then installed as Lord Protector of the new Commonwealth. The London clock trade was hit by recession immediately following the King’s execution, and Ramsay continued to languish in Newgate debtors’ prison. In exchange for his freedom, Cromwell offered Ramsay a third of the proceeds of the sale of any of the King’s possessions that Ramsay could track down. To pay his debts and regain his freedom, Ramsay (a staunch Royalist) was forced to take up Cromwell’s offer. Dr Kristin Leith, Senior Curator of Clocktime December 2022 End Notes [1] Finch et al. 2019, 183, fig. 3. [2] Finch et al. 2019, 191, n. 42. [3] Finch et al. 2019, 194. [4] Finch et al. 2019, 177 and 196, n. 72. [5] Finch et al. 2019, 195. [6] Finch et al. 2019, 196, n. 69. [7] Finch et al. 2019, 192. [8] Finch et al. 2019, 195; Hollis 2018. [9] Finch et al. 2019, 195. [10] Finch et al. 2019, 177 and 196. [11] Carter 2021, 36. References Carter, J. 2021. The John C Taylor Collection: Part I (Selling Exhibition Catalogue, Carter Marsh & Co). Winchester: Carter Marsh & Co. Finch, A. A., V. J. Finch and A. W. Finch. 2019. ‘David Ramsay, c. 1580–1659’ in Antiquarian Horology 40:2. Hollis, L. 2018. ‘Time is the emperor of all things: the revolution in clockmaking in seventeenth-century London’ in Innovation & Collaboration: The early development of the pendulum clock in London (Garnier, R. and L. Hollis eds), 11-31. Isle of Man: Fromanteel Ltd. Resources Royal Collection Trust. ‘Keeping Time: Clocks in the royal collection.’ Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. ‘History.’ Image Credit King Charles I after Sir Anthony van Dyck. Oil on canvas, based on a work of 1635-1636. NPG 843 © National Portrait Gallery, London, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw01221/King-Charles-I
